Improvement in snap-hooks



W. HEATH.

SNAP-HOOK. No.178,437: Patented .Tune 6,'1876.

N.PETEne, PHOT-LHNOGRAPNER. WASNNGYON, D C.

UNITED STATES WILLIAM HEATH,

PATENT CNTIGEI OF BATH, MAINE.

IMPROVEMENT IN SNAP-HOOKS.

-Specitication forming partv of Letters Patent No. 178,437, dated June 6, 1876; application tiled May 4, 1876.

following specification and represented in theV accompanying drawings, of which- Figure 1 is a'perspective View, and Fig. 2

a side View, ot' a snaphook of my improved construction.

In my said snap-hook the tongue or spring, at or near its free end, does not bear against the point portion ofthe hook, as in other snaphooks, but is extended beyond such down to the bottom of the shank or the bend of the hook, all as shown iu the accompanying drawings, in which the hook is represented at A, andthe spring or shorter tongue at B, the said spring constituting the chord ofthe curve ofthe shank a, and being fixed at or near either or both ot' its ends to the said shank. The point b ot the hook is very nearly 0pposite the middle ot' the spring, and such p oint is bent around so asto curve in opposite directions relatively to the spring, which 'is tangential, or about so, to the middle ot' the curve of the point, all ot' which facilitates the entrance of the point as well into as out of a rlng.

ring or staple, the latter cannot work behind the spring or tongue, so as to get between it and the shank, as 1t can in common snaphooks, whose springs, .by being short and supported at one end only of each, are very liable When lmy improved hook is hitched to ai i to become broken, and, owing to their ar-v rangement, arc inconvenient for unhitching the hook, as in accomplishing such they have vto be pressed back by the nger of a person preparatory to disengaging the hook from the ring or staple. My improved hook requires no such use of the finger, and can be unhitched from as readily as it can be hitched, one movement only ot' the hook, either upward or downward, suiicing for such, and no back movement 0f the spring by the inger being re-` quired.

l do not claim a snap-hook having its point turned or bent inward against the middle of its spring, all as'shown in the United States Patents Nos. 40,152 and 46,468, such bend operating to prevent the ready detachment ot' the hook from a ring; nor do I claim a snaphook having a guard77 and a stop,77 and the spring applied in a reverse direction to its shank, all as shown in said Patent No. 40,152. I have n0 -such arrangement of' spring, nor any such guard or stop in my snap-hook.

I therefore claim as my invention- The improved snap-hook, substantially as 

